Laptop Recommendation

[pheoxs]

Don't feel like making a new thread. Which are good go to recommendations for laptops nowadays? I always recommended XPS in the past and love mine but with Dell sticking intel I'm guessing there is better options for performance/battery life

Doesn't need to be a powerhouse, 15", good battery, nice screen, your basic 512gb ssd 16gb ram, integrated graphics is fine. It'll be used 90% for just meetings, lab work, writing reports, notes, spreadsheets, etc. Basic gaming would be neat but likely never used for.

Edit: Budget is 2000-2500, with a docking station, so I guess something a bit more powerful

[Mitsu3000gt]

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Don't feel like making a new thread. Which are good go to recommendations for laptops nowadays? I always recommended XPS in the past and love mine but with Dell sticking intel I'm guessing there is better options for performance/battery life

Doesn't need to be a powerhouse, 15", good battery, nice screen, your basic 512gb ssd 16gb ram, integrated graphics is fine. It'll be used 90% for just meetings, lab work, writing reports, notes, spreadsheets, etc. Basic gaming would be neat but likely never used for.

Asus Zephyrus 14/15 if you do end up wanting a discrete GPU. Nothing can really touch those right now for the combination of size, features, and performance. Reviews have been extremely positive as well. You can also get 11+ hours of battery life out of these units when not gaming or doing anything power-intensive for the best of both worlds. The 'lower end' configurations might not be too far off what you were willing to spend for something with a U-series CPU and integrated graphics and you could do some gaming on it. Of course it would be a bit thicker and heavier than an ultra-slim but they are still very compact for what they are. Asus put much better screens on them for 2021 as well.

If you want integrated graphics, you probably do not want a Ryzen 5300U, 5500U, or 5700U as those are still built on Zen 2 architecture. The 5800U and 5600U along with every "H" series is Zen 3. 512GB SSD and 16GB RAM is pretty common nowadays, the one thing to look out for is if the SSD is using a SATA or PCI interface, and if it's PCI, if it's getting 2 or 4 lanes. That is the first area they start cheeping out on and for that reason they also do not advertise that so you usually need to find a detailed review. As for the RAM, ideally you want to make sure it's dual channel and not just a single 16GB stick if possible, unless you plan on adding some yourself. Not the end of the world either way, but Ryzen mobile benefits from the same RAM characteristics as Ryzen desktop. At the moment, Lenovo and Asus are probably going to be the only brands you might find in stock with a Ryzen 5000 series so I would start there and see what styles/prices appeal to you. The other thing I would look out for is USB-C charging - not every laptop offers it and IMO that is a must-have going forward. I think your biggest challenge will be finding something in stock with a 5XXXU in it.

Dell (XPS) and Gigabyte (AERO) shot themselves in the foot this year recycling garbage Intel CPUs, otherwise the XPS 15 would probably be an easy recommendation. I see RAZOR just announced Ryzen based laptops, as they are also still using 10th gen Intel.

Ryzen 4XXXU laptops are easier to find, inexpensive, and still excellent, but of course you may not want to buy into prior-gen architecture. If it's just for meetings and MS Office though, maybe it's something to consider.

[pheoxs]

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Asus Zephyrus 14/15 if you do end up wanting a discrete GPU. Nothing can really touch those right now for the combination of size, features, and performance. Reviews have been extremely positive as well. You can also get 11+ hours of battery life out of these units when not gaming or doing anything power-intensive for the best of both worlds. The 'lower end' configurations might not be too far off what you were willing to spend for something with a U-series CPU and integrated graphics and you could do some gaming on it. Of course it would be a bit thicker and heavier than an ultra-slim but they are still very compact for what they are. Asus put much better screens on them for 2021 as well.

If you want integrated graphics, you probably do not want a Ryzen 5300U, 5500U, or 5700U as those are still built on Zen 2 architecture. The 5800U and 5600U along with every "H" series is Zen 3. 512GB SSD and 16GB RAM is pretty common nowadays, the one thing to look out for is if the SSD is using a SATA or PCI interface, and if it's PCI, if it's getting 2 or 4 lanes. That is the first area they start cheeping out on and for that reason they also do not advertise that so you usually need to find a detailed review. As for the RAM, ideally you want to make sure it's dual channel and not just a single 16GB stick if possible, unless you plan on adding some yourself. Not the end of the world either way, but Ryzen mobile benefits from the same RAM characteristics as Ryzen desktop. At the moment, Lenovo and Asus are probably going to be the only brands you might find in stock with a Ryzen 5000 series so I would start there and see what styles/prices appeal to you. The other thing I would look out for is USB-C charging - not every laptop offers it and IMO that is a must-have going forward. I think your biggest challenge will be finding something in stock with a 5XXXU in it.

Dell (XPS) and Gigabyte (AERO) shot themselves in the foot this year recycling garbage Intel CPUs, otherwise the XPS 15 would probably be an easy recommendation. I see RAZOR just announced Ryzen based laptops, as they are also still using 10th gen Intel.

Ryzen 4XXXU laptops are easier to find, inexpensive, and still excellent, but of course you may not want to buy into prior-gen architecture. If it's just for meetings and MS Office though, maybe it's something to consider.

Zephyrus seemed great until I saw no webcam, thats a deal breaker unfortunately.

What about the HP Spectre x360? seems decent though still uses old intel chips

https://store.hp.com/CanadaStore/Mer...pt=ABL&sel=NTB

I tried finding some 5800U laptops but they seem fairly non-existent at this time, unfortunately waiting a few months probably isn't an options.

[Mitsu3000gt]

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Zephyrus seemed great until I saw no webcam, thats a deal breaker unfortunately.

What about the HP Spectre x360? seems decent though still uses old intel chips

https://store.hp.com/CanadaStore/Mer...pt=ABL&sel=NTB

I tried finding some 5800U laptops but they seem fairly non-existent at this time, unfortunately waiting a few months probably isn't an options.

Yeah if you absolutely need a webcam built-in, the Zephyrus doesn't have them. To me that would be a non-issue as you can get extremely small webcams that are way better quality than any built-in webcam and just toss it in your laptop bag for when it's needed. But I can understand that it's still more convenient to have one built in. If you're willing to spend $2K though, the Zephyrus would be a no-brainer if you could find a way to compromise on the webcam. This is incredible value for $2K and you're getting an excellent 1440P screen with it, 1TB PCI SSD with 4 lanes, and lots of other goodies: https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product...0-eng/15264484

The Spectres are consistently well reviewed from a build and usability perspective but Intel 10th gen in it kills IMO - especially for $2K. Even the older Ryzen 4XXXU series outperforms Intel's high wattage H-series in some benchmarks. Performance, battery life, and thermals are all going to be worse on an Intel 10th gen. Intel's integrated graphics is also terrible unless you get one of the few Ice Lake CPUs which has an iGPU comparable to AMD's Vega 7/8 (The linked Spectre does not have the good Intel graphics). I also wouldn't suggest a 4K screen either as there is little to no benefit on a laptop sized screen, you will have scaling issues with some programs, you will have to go below native resolution to game, and it's significantly worse for battery life. Sometimes though the only way to get a good quality screen from a particular manufacturer is to pick their 4K option (i.e. if their 1080P options were not even 100% sRGB), so you'll want to keep an eye on that if screen quality is important to you.

Yeah as I mentioned in my OP to you, I think your biggest challenge will be finding a Ryzen 5000 laptop in stock because they don't have any competition. If you're considering an Intel 10th gen laptop, I would just buy a Ryzen 4000 series laptop as they are still better in pretty much every way and much easier to find than Ryzen 5000, at least currently.

If you need something immediately though I guess you will have to start getting progressively less picky and you will be at the mercy of what's in stock.

Something like this seems to check your boxes if you want a "flip" design or similar and is $1,000 cheaper:

https://www.costco.ca/lenovo-ideapad...100658044.html

There's also this one that is currently on sale:

https://www.costco.ca/asus-vivobook-...100711666.html


My brother owns the Lenovo one above and is very happy with it but I haven't seen it in person myself.

[LilDrunkenSmurf]

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Zephyrus seemed great until I saw no webcam, thats a deal breaker unfortunately.

What about the HP Spectre x360? seems decent though still uses old intel chips

https://store.hp.com/CanadaStore/Mer...pt=ABL&sel=NTB

I tried finding some 5800U laptops but they seem fairly non-existent at this time, unfortunately waiting a few months probably isn't an options.

I've been keeping an eye out, as I may need a new laptop for work. These are some deals I have earmarked, but I have no idea if they're still valid:
https://forums.redflagdeals.com/dell...-1280-2453620/
https://forums.redflagdeals.com/asus...0-off-2448151/

I'm also keeping an eye on the M1 macbooks, but I need to find out if I have to VM any windows software, as the M1 while powerful is ARM, and can't natively run windows (no VM, no bootcamp).

I also hear you on the webcam. Aside from the fact that the price on webcams has skyrocketed since covid, if I'm _only_ carrying my laptop around, I don't want to lug a bag of extras around too, especially if I'm in the office and need to attend a meeting from a random location.

[Mitsu3000gt]

I hear you guys on the webcam, but carrying around a tiny webcam that would easily fit into your pocket is a far cry from lugging around a bag of extras. A really good one might cost you $100 but if you are getting a much better laptop (and webcam) as a result, IMO that would be worth at least considering assuming it checks the rest of your boxes. Webcam quality on most laptops is truly horrendous anyway - I remember the prior-gen XPS laptops looked up your nose haha, so you probably wouldn't be using that one anyway.

If you're already in the office, presumably you would have used some sort of bag or backpack to bring your laptop there, and you could just have the webcam in the bag.

I would be more concerned about buying a laptop with sub-par battery life, forcing you to carry around a charging brick.

[LilDrunkenSmurf]

Battery life is why the M1 macbook is the top of my list.

[taemo]

my work laptop is an X360, it is good but watch out for the swelling battery. pretty much all X360s in our organization have had the battery replaced at one point, mine twice since owning it for 3 years now.

still a pretty good laptop. if I were on the market for a laptop it would be a Dell XPS or Apple.

really happy with my 2015 rMBP and just waiting for the next gen of Apple M chip to see if I want to upgrade. I'm fine with Apple since I have lots of Windows machine and VM that I can RDP into.

[Mitsu3000gt]

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Battery life is why the M1 macbook is the top of my list.

Battery life is nothing amazing on the M1 equipped Macbooks from many of the reviews I've seen so far - some of them can't even get 8hr out of it with light office work. There are lots of similar forum complaints and on reddit about battery life not living up to claims - 8-10 hours seems to be what most people are reporting while using it normally which is still decent. Certainly not terrible and enough to get you through a normal day at the office, but battery life doesn't seem to be anything special unless you just use it for watching movie loops at 10% brightness. Even gaming laptops these days are getting ~13hr battery life using the usual video or browsing test loops.

Has Apple released a fix for the premature SSD wear issue yet? That is the other thing that would worry me given that everything is soldered on and non-serviceable.